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Reducing Salt While Keeping Food Choices Tasty

9 Jul 2013

Used for thousands of years for both its technological and taste properties, salt has been in the spotlight for many years. For some, like Pierre Meneton from Inserm [the French public research body dedicated to human health] it’s poison: he compares the salt lobby to the tobacco lobby. For others, it’s something to consume in […]

Used for thousands of years for both its technological and taste properties, salt has been in the spotlight for many years. For some, like Pierre Meneton from Inserm [the French public research body dedicated to human health] it’s poison: he compares the salt lobby to the tobacco lobby. For others, it’s something to consume in moderation. The latter recognize the role that salt consumption can play in certain diseases such as hypertension, with an increased risk of mortality from cardiovascular diseases.

WHO (the World Health Organization) recommends consumption of 5g of salt per day (2g of sodium), which is well below the average consumption (for example, in France salt consumption via processed food is 8.7g for men and 6.7g for women). The main contributors are bakery products, processed meats (ham, sausage and so on) and cheeses that use salt, not only for taste but also for technological reasons (process, preservation etc.).

Ingredient manufacturers offer many ways to reduce levels of sodium in processed foods.

For example, AkzoNobel Salt Specialties and Givaudan have launched Suprasel OneGrain TS-M100, a “one for one” solution that can reduce sodium in processed meat formulation by up to 40%.

Chr. Hansen offers SaltLite, a combination of cultures and coagulant (for texture), which is able to reduce the salt content in cheese by up to 50%. Tate & Lyle has expanded its Soda-Lo (winner of the Innovation Award at HI Europe 2012) with hollow microspheres that reduce the sodium bicarbonate in baked goods by 50%.

The Salins group selected naturally crystallized marine minerals that can reduce the sodium in deli, bakery and cheese applications by 50% while preserving both the taste and technological roles of salt. Mane offers Sense capture, a clean label aromatic solution that replaces salt in many formulations. Nu-Tek Food Science offers Nu-Tek Salt Advanced Potassium Chloride, an ingredient that helps to reduce sodium by 50% without loss of taste.

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